Current Projects chat and miscellany

nice surly. a couple of feelings....

1. i would have gone full 105 for the drivetrain. at least for the rear mech.
   
2. there's nothing "shit" about a brand new surly.
   
   

1) Each to their own. I want the lower gears and better look :)
2) Huh?

Harry, that is making me very, very jealous.

you said "suitably shit"..... i was maybe misreading, maybe whatever... but totally joking.

also i thought SLX was below 105?? or is that sora? i forget. i'm really only familiar with 105 and up....

eitherway i'd go with comething compact.

nice ride.

You sir, are a star.
Just ordered some lovely VO Zepplin fenders. Sweeet.

Yay!
You can tell I've been dream-building proper utilitarian touringy bikes in my head for the past few days. (and on bike cad)
See: http://img.skitch.com/20100310-pk7kjmg7mw3wpywr5a5cx4c1m3.jpg

ahhh seems SLX is the new "LX"

http://bike.shimano.com/publish/content/global_cycle/en/us/index/products/mountain/slx.html

it's been so long since i've looked at MTB stuff.

you said "suitably shit"..... i was maybe misreading, maybe whatever... but totally joking.

also i thought SLX was below 105?? or is that sora? i forget. i'm really only familiar with 105 and up....

eitherway i'd go with comething compact.

nice ride.

I said suitably shit IPhone pictures. The bikes going to be awsome! :)

SLX is MTB, roughly equivalent of 105, little bit heavier, little bit stronger, and the shadow rear mech is a plus. Need to change the outer ring though, I think 44T will be a little low. Swap it out for a 48T I think.

Harry you sure you don't want to buy my internal 8 speeds wheel with A719 rims?

it's pretty suitable for those kind of build, and I'm selling it for £275, it can be use with a front dérailleur, have a long chat with the owner of BikeFix who specialised in such thing, and went for the Nexus hubs.

edit - just read that you already ordered it, whoop!

I said suitably shit IPhone pictures. The bikes going to be awsome! :)

SLX is MTB, roughly equivalent of 105, little bit heavier, little bit stronger, and the shadow rear mech is a plus. Need to change the outer ring though, I think 44T will be a little low. Swap it out for a 48T I think.

Cant you get a trekking SLX set-up? I have the Deore equivilent on my utility bike (cyclocross frame + MTB groupset + rack'n'mudguards, so pretty similar). It gives a nice range of gears with some super spinny comos for loaded hill climbing.

I have 48/36/26 crankset with a 11-32 cassette.

Merlin used to do a 48/36/26 XT crankset for cheap, but appear to have run out.

ED: Also I find the 36T chainring really useful when loaded/towing.

@ Harry
In case you aren't aware, Avid shorty 6 are 'knee saver' canti, not a cross-style one with the better leverage that they give. I replaced some shitty shmano ones recently on my tourer for Shorty 6s and they seem pretty good to me, but I have little experience of cantis really.

If you chose those you might swap them and put the pauls on the back. But they would look a bit different. Maybe just get a more cross-ish pair?

how much were the muguards?

Harry you sure you don't want to buy my internal 8 speeds wheel with A719 rims?

it's pretty suitable for those kind of build, and I'm selling it for £275, it can be use with a front dérailleur, have a long chat with the owner of BikeFix who specialised in such thing, and went for the Nexus hubs.

edit - just read that you already ordered it, whoop!

this is exactly what i would do and was my first thought.

Smallfurry: You can get, apparently, 48, 36, 26 SLX chainset. But I cannot find it anywhere, so I have 44, 32, 22. Which might all be a bit low, but I think if I shift the front up to 48T and run an 11-28 on the back I'm going to be good to go on road or off road, as I'll have a huge range.

Skully:I am aware, thats why I'm thinking of getting them as a stop gap before getting paul tourers on the back. The neo-retro on the front mass massive arms for maximum power, but on the back I'd rather have the clearence than the power, so Avid Shorty 6's followed by Paul Tourers should work very well for what I want.

Mudguards were £40 + postage. Very reasonable. I opted for the widest ones, to clear 42c Tyres, as even though I plan to start on 32c tyres I can't rule out the possibility of changing up, and it would be a shame to have to replace the guards.

Ed: Thanks, but I've decided I definitely want external gears (or a Rohloff - but I can't afford that right now, even on trade). Plus, as nice as your offer is I could get a Nexus on A719 on trade, so the price isn't good for me :P

Ah OK. Well, like I said, Shorty 6 seem pretty good to me. ~~ AAMOI, why do you need the clearance at the back? ~~ Oh, panniers. Duh.

£40 seems really reasonable. You pay nearly that for SKS Chromoplastic I think.

indeed it is! Chromo-plastic = fail

I've got big feet, and a low Q factor. Clearence probably is an issue, but I won't know till I try it, and I'd rather buy small and find I can have big, then buy big and find I have to have small.

Harry.Major
Cross-check is totally wicked, it should be black but I'll let that one slide.
Still madly in love with mine, wish I had it with me now. I vote Middleburn cranks running square taper shimano bottom bracket, it just seems so appropriate to have the most indestructible crank and BB setup ever on one of the toughest utility frames out there...

and that's what I have on mine at the moment.

Smallfurry: You can get, apparently, 48, 36, 26 SLX chainset. But I cannot find it anywhere, so I have 44, 32, 22. Which might all be a bit low, but I think if I shift the front up to 48T and run an 11-28 on the back I'm going to be good to go on road or off road, as I'll have a huge range.

Did a quick search of the places I'd seen it when getting mine. Only found it in Germany ;(
http://www.bike24.com/1.php?content=8;navigation=1;product=8809;group=60;page=3;pid=88;menuid1=2;menuid2=0;mid=0;pgc=0

Too late any way. Its all ordered now.

JDB: Bought it second hand, no choice on the colour, but at least its not brown. Once built, if I like it, I may strip it all down and have it raw (laquered).

Just leaving this here for Corny:

Is that the Panasonic?

I think it's a Toshiba ;-)

My colleagues thought we'd ordered some fancy flat pack telly for the yout in reception to play playstation on.

Kick a few holes in the box, send him a pic... Just to get him agitated, like...

So it went straight to work, you didn't have to pay any VAT/Custom charges?

Nope, it got stopped last week. Paid the VAT and it arrived the next day.

Shame you couldn't stretch to black 75's... that would have been the icing on the cake.

Look what found its way to me:

^^familiar sight

stealth bike in the works

I have more black parts than you ;)